Finian's has centre stage all to himself

Unforeseen circumstances slightly overshadowed the Cheltenham Festival success of Finian’s Rainbow but he had the attention all to himself in the John Smith’s Melling Chase at Aintree yesterday.

When Wishfull Thinking crashed through a fence, a rail and into photographers with a circuit remaining of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the knock-on effect was for the obstacle to be bypassed and to leave Finian’s Rainbow fighting off Sizing Europe on the run-in.

Mercifully this Grade One was incident-free and even a first try chasing at two a half miles was not enough to thwart Nicky Henderson’s maturing nine-year-old, who could be asked to tackle even longer distances next season with his much-vaunted stablemate Sprinter Sacre pencilled in for the shortest division.